I’ve always loved dahlias

I was immediately attracted to the cover of the July issue of NZ Gardener. And it just got better with gorgeous photos and an offer of free dahlia seed. The photo on page 22 is almost certainly one taken of my grandfather’s family in Kaeo, as the family has other photos of similar scenes at that place.

I also loved the story on the lemon tree in Rangihoua. My great-greatgrandfather James Shepherd arrived at Rangihoua in the early 1800s and his third child, my great-grandfather Alfred Brown Shepherd, born in 1830, was the last Shepherd born there before the family moved. We visited the Marsden Cross site a few years ago, and the photo shows my grandson standing beneath the lemon tree. Sheryl Bainbridge, Coopers Beach